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Strategies of Legitimation in Tantric Buddhism

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Strategies of Legitimation in Tantric Buddhism Dan O'Huiginn STRATEGIES OF LEGITIMATION IN TANTRIC BUDDHISM BA Dissertation, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge University May 2005 Strategies of legitimation in Tantric Buddhism Page 2 of 57 Contents CONTENTS..................................................................................................................2 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................3 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING RESEARCH..........................................................................4 RECONCILING PRACTICE AND DOCTRINE .....................................................................8 STATEMENTS ABOUT NON-TANTRIC BUDDHISM ......................................12 SCHOOLS OF BUDDHISM............................................................................................13 DOCTRINES ...............................................................................................................14 ESTABLISHING CANONICITY..........................................................................18 MULTIPLE PATHS ......................................................................................................19 QUOTATIONS OF TEXTS..............................................................................................21 CANONICITY AND NON-BUDDHIST RELIGIONS...........................................................22 EFFICACY..................................................................................................................25 SPEED, EASE AND MAGIC ..........................................................................................25 BUDDHISM UNDERPINNING EFFICACY .......................................................................26 REVERSALS .............................................................................................................29 SNELLGROVE: REVERSALS ........................................................................................30 ELIADE: COINCIDENTIA OPPOSITORUM......................................................................31 NÀGÀRJUNA: SATYADVAYA......................................................................................34 AN EXAMPLE.............................................................................................................35 SYMBOLISM.............................................................................................................37 DEVICES....................................................................................................................39 Numerology..........................................................................................................39 Nirvacana analysis...............................................................................................40 Jargon ..................................................................................................................41 LOCATIONS FOR SYMBOLISM.....................................................................................44 Mantras................................................................................................................44 Maõóalas .............................................................................................................46 Rituals ..................................................................................................................49 Commentaries ......................................................................................................51 CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................53 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................54 May 2005 Dan O'Huiginn Strategies of legitimation in Tantric Buddhism Page 3 of 57 INTRODUCTION Buddhist Tantrism1 draws its theology mostly from non-Tantric Buddhism, and its practices from broader Tantric activity. This has led to conflicts: Tantric practices contravened the injunctions of the Pāli canon and of Mahāyāna tradition. Here, I outline some of the strategies which the authors of Buddhist Tantras used to overcome this divergence, and more widely to justify Tantric practices. The size of the Tantric literature makes an exhaustive study impossible. Most of the examples here are taken from the Hevajra Tantra, the Guhyasamāja Tantra, the Vajrabhairava Tantra and the Mahāvairocanābhisaübodhi Tantra, and their commentaries as appropriate. A thorough study of this limited corpus has enabled me to assess the relative importance of the various strategies of legitimation, and how the portfolio of strategies varies according to time, school, and situation. I have also included examples from other Tantric texts, taken either from the secondary literature, or from non-exhaustive readings of the texts themselves. These sources illustrate a wider range of techniques, but the price is that I cannot assess the importance of each technique. 1 I use the terms ’Buddhist Tantrism’, ’’Vajrayāna’, and ’Mantrayāna’ interchangeably. By ’non-tantric Buddhism’ and ’orthodox Buddhism’ I refer to Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the exclusion of Vajrayāna, while by ’early Buddhism’, I mean the Hīnayāna religion expressed in the Pāli canon May 2005 Dan O'Huiginn Strategies of legitimation in Tantric Buddhism Page 4 of 57 A summary of existing research Some work on syncretism and conflict in Indian religions is relevant to the topic at hand. There has been considerable examination of the historical development of Indian religion, and of borrowings between traditions. Some of these have a bearing on the history of Tantrism, such as the work of Jean Przyluski [1950] on the development of goddess cults under the influence of local and pre-Aryan religion, and the work of Bolle [1971:22-38] on the influence of pre-Aryan culture on various later traditions2, and [1971:27-34] on the persistence within several traditions of ’yakùas’3. However, even when these studies have a bearing on the history of Tantrism, they rarely give much attention to the techniques used to legitimise it. Bethia Beadman [2003] has recently analysed strategies of conflict resolution in Indian religions. She finds three methods by which conflicts are resolved: individualism, internalisation, and a dissolution of duality. Of these, the dissolution of duality is the most prevalent in Vajrayāna texts, and will be discussed as part of the strategy of reversal. Her other two concepts are, in Tantric Buddhism, mostly approached by means of symbolism. They are quite commonly 2 Of relevance to Tantrism is his argument that a ’proto-Shiva’ can be found in the Indus Valley civilisation of early North India 3 These were originally nature-spirits. As they were absorbed into mainstream Hindu traditions, Kubera (the leader of the yakùas) became one of the lokapAlas (the 'world-protectors', or gods of the directions), while other yakùas became vAhanas (vehicles) for other gods. The significance of this is that an alternative name for the yakùas is the guhyas, a word which is also found in the title of the tantric 'guhyasamàja'. As Bolle notes [1971:29], 'it would not be impossible to understand guhyasamàja as 'assembly of the guhyas'', at least as a secondary meaning May 2005 Dan O'Huiginn Strategies of legitimation in Tantric Buddhism Page 5 of 57 used tactics in commentaries which are embarrassed by the transgressive rituals of their root text, and so find an internalised meaning for them. I also make some use of the work of Mircea Eliade [1985; see also Phillips, 1986]. Eliade is concerned with the comparative study of religion worldwide. However, much of his work concerns India, and his theories are intended to be universally applicable. In particular, I adopt his idea of the ’coincidentia oppositorum’, an mystical experience arising from awareness of the unity of contradictory ideas. This provides a partial explanation for those texts which highlight their contradictions with orthodoxy, rather than trying to explain them away. David McMahon [1998] has also written on strategies of legitimation in Mahāyāna Buddhism. However, he is mostly concerned with the transition from oral to written texts, a shift which was less important to Tantric Buddhism, since it had already taken place4. Studies of Tantrism itself have suffered from major impediments. Many key texts were not readily available, let alone edited or translated. Moreover those which have been available are frequently cryptic, since they assume that a guru will be available to elucidate the text. More seriously, some practices have disagreed with the sensibilities of more conservative scholars. So, B. Faddegon considered that ’we may regard this śaktism as an epidemic and social neurosis; as such it is not without significance for neurology’ [quoted in Bolle, 1977: 3]. EJ Thomas was similarly nervous about the sexual content: ’It [Tantrism] consists in giving a 4 This will be further discussed below May 2005 Dan O'Huiginn Strategies of legitimation in Tantric Buddhism Page 6 of 57 religious significance to the facts of sex. Such a development, at least in a certain stage of society, is not necessarily immoral. Its discussion, however, belongs to medical psychology’ [quoted in Bolle, 1977: 3]. The result was a lack of attention given to Tantric studies. The literature frequently considers two intertwined questions which have a bearing on strategies of legitimation, namely the origin of Tantric Buddhism, and the extent to which it diverges
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